Police parade suspected kidnapper of Sun Newspaper DMD’s wife

The Police in Lagos have arrested one of the suspected kidnappers of wife of The Sun Deputy Managing Director, Mrs Toyin Nwosu. The suspect, Vanguard gathered, was arrested in Kogi State.

However, the suspect, Odo Sylvester, an undergraduate of Kogi State University, claimed he only posed as one of the kidnappers in order to extort money from Mr Steve Nwosu, to buy some handouts and furnish his apartment.

Sylvester, a 200 level student of Economics, told a bewildered crowd at the Lagos State Police Command where he was paraded alongside 44 other suspected criminals, yesterdaythat he demanded N2 million as ransom from Mr. Nwosu.

He said: “I am not a kidnapper. I do not know what a kidnapper looks like. Greed led me into this. When I read about the kidnap of The Sun DMD’s wife abduction, I decided to hijack the opportunity to play a fast one on her husband in order to raise money to buy some handouts and also furnish my apartment.
“Immediately, I bought a copy of The Sun newspaper and got the number of the DMD from the back page. I dialled the number and demanded for N100,000 from him, saying I would assist him secure the release of his wife. He told me he had N2.5 million on ground as ransom. When I heard that, I became cold because I have never counted a million in my life, let alone N2.5 million.

“He told me to send my account details but I told him I would get back to him. When I called again, I demanded for N2 million.

“Again, I called next day to negotiate on how to get the N2 million, only for him to inform me that some people had called him, claiming they were the abductors. That ended my call to him. This thing started in a day and also ended in one day.

“But to my shock, some plain clothes policemen stormed my school while I was in class and whisked me away. I am not a kidnapper. I never collected any money from them. My intention was just to collect the N100,000 and refund anything more than that,” he said.

Briefing newsmen on the arrest, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, said investigation was still ongoing to apprehend others involved in the abduction of Mrs Nwosu.

It would be recalled that Mrs Nwosu was abducted right in the presence of her family members, from their Lagos residence in Amuwo-Odofin, Festac area, Lagos, at about 2:30am on Monday, September 14, 2015, by some gunmen who invaded the area.

Her abductors were said to have escaped through the canal at Amuwo area with Toyin, who was, however, released a few days later.